Tran had been hired as a “gardener” to cultivate the drugs after coming to England from his native Vietnam to find work.

Judge Peter Carr told him: “Unhappily your case by no means presents an unfamiliar picture to the courts, of people coming into this country who are then recruited by organisers of cannabis factories to look after their crop.

“But these courts have seen an increasing number of cases of this type, and the message needs to go out to people in your position that there must be some element of deterrent in the sentence that the court passes.”

Raj Punia, prosecuting, said Tran was the only occupant of the house when drugs squad officers carried out a raid at 8.25am on February 1.

He was living and sleeping in the front room because all three bedrooms had been converted to grow cannabis. There were 104 plants in one room, 54 in another and 52 in the third, all between 20cm and one metre high.

Each room had a customised electricity supply to power heaters, lamps and extraction fans, and all the windows had been taped up with opaque plastic sheeting so no-one could see in. Officers also found bags of compost, fertiliser and growth chemicals.

Andrew Jackson, defending, said Tran had hoped to work in a restaurant, but had been approached by a man who offered him £1,000 a month to cultivate the drugs which had already been installed. He was given food and clothes, but never received any money.

Mr Jackson said: “Sadly this is not an unfamiliar trial. He comes from a very poor background and has five young children.

“He had hoped to be able to send money back to his family.

“It was not the largest or most sophisticated set up ever seen.”

Two illegal immigrants to be deported for growing cannabis

In a separate incident, two illegal Vietnamese immigrants have been jailed for two years after police found hundreds of cannabis plants at a house in Coventry.

Dinh Nguyen, aged 30, and Quyet Hoang, aged 23, pleaded guilty to growing the crop in a terraced house in St Michael’s Road, Stoke, last year.

Hoang was looking for work and Nguyen wanted to find his sister and were recruited by a mystery man who promised to help them in return for growing the drugs.

But once in the house they were not allowed to leave, and Hoang became allergic to the plants.

In mitigation, the court heard it had been a “thoroughly unpleasant experience” for both men.

Judge Peter Carr told them: “I quite understand that people like yourselves are tempted by opportunities such as this in order to sustain yourselves or your families in the country of origin, but there really is no mitigation in both your cases. “

The judge ordered that both men be deported at the end of their sentences.